Obaseki agric reforms: Mr. Churchill Oboh urges other communities to join the move as Saro Oil Palm Limited starts developing a 10,000-hectare oil palm plantation at Orhionmwon LGA

Obaseki agric reforms: Mr. Churchill Oboh urges other communities to join the move as Saro Oil Palm Limited starts developing a 10,000-hectare oil palm plantation at Orhionmwon LGA

Saro Oil Palm Limited, an integrated agricultural company, has started pre-planting activities in anticipation for the establishment of a 10,000-hectare oil palm plantation in Edo State’s Orhionmwon Local Government Area.

This was revealed by Dr. Tunde Faturonti, Managing Director of Saro Oil Palm Limited, during a facilities tour and meeting with leaders of Evboesi Community, Orhionmwon Local Government Area.

Faturonti revealed at the farm that the company is establishing a 30-hectare nursery, adding, “Our plan is to plant 400,000 thousand this year.” The plan is that, when you have the pre-germinated nuts, we plant it and nurse it for three months. So, when it’s three months, we will now transfer to the nursery in a bigger bag.

Mr. Churchill Oboh, Team Lead of the Edo State Oil Palm Programme (ESOPP), stated that Saro Oil Palm Limited has made impressive progress with the project’s implementation in Evboesi community, urging other communities to speedily join the state government’s industrialization drive to avoid falling behind.

“When we started our engagements with communities to cooperate with the investors, some community leaders refused to cooperate with the investors.

“But Evboesi is a success story because the leaders saw well ahead of time that Governor Obaseki means well for Edo people. I urge such leaders to cooperate with the government and investors to transform all the communities in the State,” he said.

The Ohenosa of Evboesi, Chief Billy Akongie, said “Obaseki is our son, we are pleased with what Saro is doing in Evboesi because we had had situations in the past where previous governments brought investors and the investors did not deliver the projects.

He added that “They will go and buy project vehicles and brand them and after a while, the contractors will disappear, and that will be the end of the project. But with Obaseki as governor, the story is different.

“He promised he would develop Orhionmwon local government area when he was campaigning for re-election and he brought Saro to partner with us on this project.

“We are pleasantly surprised at what Saro is doing in Evboesi; our youths have been gainfully employed on their farm and we are very happy about the 500 KVA transformer that Saro Oil Palm gave to us.

“They have delivered all the things we requested from them and Saro and our people are partners on this project that will cater for our children and grandchildren. With this project, Obaseki’s name will never be forgotten by our people.”